Des Moines (CA 134) - Naval Cruise Book

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D O O O HE V DIVISION is composed of aviation person- nel Whose job is to maintain the aircraft attached to the ship. The aircraft attached to the DES MOINES for this cruise is a helicopter. The uses of a helicopter aboard a cruiser are many, the most important job being that of life saving for which the V Division must always be prepared. They are also called on for the transferring of personnel from one ship to another, gun fire spotting, delivery of mail to all ships operating in company, radar cali- bration, photography, and most any other job imag- inable. The men who maintain the aircraft have a rough and never ending job. The same amount of mainte- nance is required for the 'engine as in conventional aircraft. ln addition, the rotor drive and transmissions which are finely machined require hours of servicing for each hour of flight. Also there is the never ending battle at sea with salt Water corrosion which is ever present. ln training the men of the division learn the plane and how to cope with its troubles and problems. Now with the fleet they become part of the ship, Working as a team in both maintenance and handling of the aircraft. Through indoctrination, training and team Work, the'V Division, although a temporarily attached unit to the ship, fulfills the need for a mobile maintenance setup for the multipurpose aircraft. Top: Making the landing. Right: Constant repair work. STANDING: lt. Q.g.J W. V. Gar- rison: G. K. Sundborg, AD17 I-- E. Coleman, AD3: Lt. li.g-l J- V- Burfon .... KNEELING: J. G. Arrington, AT37 T. V. Murphy, AD3.

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Laundry FIRST ROW: T. P. Glasser, SKSA: R. F. Rowe, CS3: J. J. Nieciecki SHSN: J. B. Enix, SN: W. E, Cummings, CSSA: T. F. Joyce SN .... SECOND ROW: V. C. Fitzpatrick, CS3: R. C. McLaugh. lin, BTG3: W. A. Myles, CS3: J, V. Havelka, CS1: F. L. Abel, SKGC: J. F. Johnson, MM1: R, S. Collins, CS2: W. P. Woods, SHSN: L. J. DeCleene, SA .... THIRD ROW: J. H. Miller, SH2: P. E. McConnell, SK3: R. J. Hen. ry, SN: P. F. Wimmer, CSSA: P. A. Miceli, SHSN: R. C. Picard SA: J. C. Cherwa, CSSN: A. De- Gennaro, CS3: A. Finizio, CSSN: E. A. Sommers, CS3. I I I FIRST ROW: A. C. Alston, TN: J. L. Harper, SD3: A. C. Pugh, SD3: O. Jackson, TN .... SEC- OND ROW: H. B. Adams, SD3: V. Viray, SD3: J. Rudolph, SD1: R. Green, SD3: W. Henderson, TN: J. B. Green, TN .... THIRD ROW: G. D. Ellis, SD3: M. T. Bolds, SD3: L. J. Green, SD1: O. Williams, SDC: E. Bowers, SDC: E. Moore, TN: W. B. Reed, TN: S. B. Booker, TN .... FOURTH ROW: S. Corre, TN: R. H. Copeland, SD3s G. P. Pierce, Jr., TN: R. L. Scales, TN.: L. M. Williams, SDI: H. L. Crenshaw, TN: O. Fuller, TN: P. S. Seisa, SDI: G. T. Lewis, TA: W. L. Hawkins, TN. Cobbler shop.

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N APRIL 6th 2350 A D. lohn Smith stood with his son in New York City s famous Museum of History and perused 1n their immaculate cases several ancient documents of the old diesel-engined ships Sud. denly his eye was attracted by the faded log of the histor1c USS DES MOINES, an almost legendary fight- ing, Navy cruiser He had read about lt often 1n his history books as a child, and his eyes strained to make legible the barely visible lines Actually, there were two logs side by side, the caption beneath one reading Smooth Log and the other uartermaster s Note- bookf' the former obviously being a neat summary of the other The date on the open pages was September 18 1951 and there were many signatures. There was the Navi- gator s, J. W. Newland, and the ancient old skipper s, R. B. Ellis. There were several names of uartermasters such as Wiseman, Stubenrod, Boland Cavanaugh neatly appendaged to their entries, and a wealth of weather data on one page. These were the men of N Division, it said on another caption. John Smiths heart pounded heavily as his mind 1 ' 9 - a an - as ' ' 9 . QC ao ccQ a a . 1 Q 9 1 9 S N cc as a Bearing two . . . zero . . . one. drifted dreamily back four hundred years. He imag- ined himself as one of these sturdy old Quartermasters keeping the ship's log, plotting position, navigating 20,000 tons of steel through reef and storm. He saw himself with sextant measuring the stars, carefully ticking off the error on the ship's chronometer, sur- rounded by charts, and laboriously correcting the long l-1 FRONT ROW: A. J. Dorsey, SA, P. Callia, SN: C. Tucker, SN .... SECOND ROW: J. J. Leonhardt, SN, B. P. Cavanaugh, QM1, R. A. Kendrick, QM17 Ens. W. F. Leppin, Asst. Navigator: LCDR J. W. Newland, Navigator, A. L. Hipp, QMC: J. E. Bethany, QM1: F. E. Fitz, QM27 J. L. Van Horn, SN .... BACK ROW: R. E. Haupt, SN, R. K. Wiseman, QM3p L. E. Swanisc, QM37 M. E. Fitts, QM1p L. A. Boland, SN: F. W. Stubenrod, QM37 A. E. Verrier, SN, A. D. McGhee, AGI: L. W. Horne, SA: A. C. Stout, SN.